May 9 Headlines
Wednesday
HA’ARETZ
1. Barak: Olmert must resign; I will sit in his government only if there are early elections.
SENIOR KADIMA OFFICIALS: PREPARE FOR PRIMARIES.
2. REPORT: ISRAEL PREVENTS ACCESS TO ALMOST 50% OF THE WEST BANK AND HARMS REHABILITATION OF PA ECONOMY.
MAKOR RISHON-HATZOFEH
1. Barak jumpstarts election campaign.
ULTIMATUM TO KADIMA.
"If Olmert does not resign, we must go to elections." "I will be prepared to serve as Defense Minister in transitional government ahead of elections."
MA’ARIV
1. BARAK THREATENS: ELECTIONS WITHIN SIX MONTHS.
Ehud Barak broke his silence and declared: I call on Olmert to resign but am prepared to sit a transitional government led by him. Olmert's confidants: This is spin; Barak doesn't have the courage to go to elections now.
2. WAR PROTOCOLS.
Olmert's, Peretz's and Halutz's testimony to Winograd Committee to be published today or tomorrow.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. GOVERNMENT IN WAR GAME.
First time: PM and DM to participate in major IDF exercise next week designed to check IDF's and Government's preparedness for emergency situations. IDF satisfied with high turnout of reservists for exercise.
2. Azmi Bishara in Yediot Ahronot interview.
"I AM NOT A SPY."
For first time since he left Israel for Jordan, former MK accused of espionage: "I did not divulge secrets to Hezbollah. I only told a friend on the telephone that it is possible to understand attacking Haifa but why are Arab towns suddenly being fired on. I have no property except an apartment but assume that somebody received money from Hezbollah and got rich – what of it?"
3. BARAK, ABOUT NETANYAHU: HE IS NOT INTERESTED IN RUNNING AGAINST ME.
"Likud Chairman prefers someone else as Labor Chairman."
4. Yediot Ahronot and Mina Tzemach/Dahaf poll last night:
32% OF LABOR MEMBERS: BARAK SHOULD LEAD.
29% favor Ayalon. But Ayalon would win a second round.
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
Makor Rishon-Hatzofeh complains that Supreme Court has arrogated too much power to itself.
Yediot Ahronot accuses former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, "was – and remains – an opportunist," whose actions are dictated by circumstances.
Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, says that the true solution to the problem of Kassam rockets, "lies within the Prime Minister's Office. It could begin with interim arrangements and ad-hoc solutions but it must – in the end – lead to a diplomatic settlement. No concrete shield can protect the residents of Sderot like a wisely-formulated and well-intentioned piece of paper."
[Ariela Ringle-Hoffman wrote today’s editorials in Yediot Ahronot.]
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